Why Purpose?
“The 2 most important days in life are the day you are born and the day you discover the reason why”
- Mark Twain
It’s widely researched, written and believed that a strong and well-defined personal purpose can transform individual well-being, longevity, relationships, wealth, success and fortunes, but how much attention do we really pay to the connection between our intuitive drivers and what we do every day? Do we have the courage to truly find and follow what fires our soul? To live a life of authentic freedom doing what we love and inspiring others?
Before we go any further on why pursue our purpose, let’s share our view on what is life's purpose. Put simply, it is having a meaningful reason for your existence…a WHY you do what you do. Living purposefully is the act of living meaningfully and acting intentionally by design towards your purpose.
Having the commitment and courage to find and live your ‘why’ can and will truly change your life. It can be a frightening concept to leave what you know to launch into what is in your heart...
Having awareness of and living a personal purpose runs deeper than understanding life objectives and goals. It’s a fulfilling, calming clarity that allows us to intuitively connect to the path best suited to our gifts, values and passions.
It’s more dynamic, passionate and propulsive than just pursuing our personal goals. It’s what makes our hearts full, our eyes light up, and gives us a calm determination when faced with the rollercoaster of life.
A well-being compass so to speak, fear is diminished and a sense of freedom abounds. It’s what keeps us yearning, searching for and finding ways to become the best version of ourselves, to give more and serve more… it’s simply the most powerful determining factor in an individual life journey.
So how do you know if you're living purposefully? Download our FREE Purpose Pulse Check to see what's going great and also perhaps what's missing.
At Purpose & Flow, we know that a sense of personal purpose is intuitively within all of us, whether we consciously articulate and connect to it or not. The difference of finding and living it is the commitment and courage you have to uncover your purpose or as we call it, your ‘why’.
We, humans, become so enraptured by our daily activities, engagements, goals and so forth, that our awareness of our own unique life purpose is easily dimmed.
Symptoms range from lingering dissatisfaction to flat-out chaotic fury. Overall though it’s the absence of inner peace and lack of living consciously to our inner self and life around us.
That's because your true inner self (intuition) knows that your life purpose is out of sync with your outer self (ego). When we uncover our purpose our external and internal life becomes one and everything feels more harmonious, our life more focused and productive. This explains the feeling many of us have when we are just unsettled and lacking substance.
“Purpose is created by you, for you, from a place deep seeded in your intuition, it comes from the heart and radiates through all aspects of your life”
So how do you find your Purpose? Well, it's a process of unwrapping oneself, understanding some of your inner drivers, beliefs, passions, values, and gifts and then packing it into a nice ball to share for the benefit of others. Altruism has a massive part to play in living one's purpose.
Whilst there is no shortage of writing and reflection on the useful nature of purposeful living, it isn’t as simple and straightforward as taking pen to paper. The process of unveiling or realising your purpose takes time, it’s a journey of deep reflection, forcing you to go inward unlocking emotional markers and searching for the vital ingredients to purpose; your own set of Gifts, Values and Passions.
This self-reflection is a discipline unto itself. Learning to go inwards, disregarding our ego, and embracing vulnerability and intuition to find clarity when we are constantly bombarded with external messages announcing what is right for us.
“We believe the answers are always within and by empowering you to find them and unearth purposeful living, we find the “Gold” in life”
When you discover and live your personal purpose, you are able to live your truth through all buckets of your life. We refer to buckets as those areas within your life that drive your fulfilment. Family, career, well being, and adventure pursuits could represent but a few.
Living your purpose can be ignited by the simple things…. simply being conscious of supporting a good friend, helping others using your gifts, investing in good nutrition, improving your community contributions, connecting with your extended family more often or on the more radical end, experiencing the world by travelling to a new country or changing your career.
“Decisions feel easier, there is a calm sense of rationale, the fear of a ‘wrong’ turn diminishes, the flow of your life feels fulfilling”
Why is having a sense of purpose so important?
Purpose helps devise the blueprint that drives you toward a satisfying future.
It also helps you to get the most from the things you do and achieve – large and small – right now.
Purpose helps you clarify your areas of fulfilment and prioritise your life, make plans, get the drive to keep going when things get tough.
Purpose will steer you to identify the things that truly count when circumstances change, you become more resilient and curious as you grow
Having a sense of purpose is like the rudder on a ship, it will help steer you in the right direction when you hit rough seas such as sickness, conflict in relationships and challenges at work
Increased health and longevity - An incredibly strong sense of personal purpose has been to show significant increases in health, wellbeing and life span (Buettner, Blue Zones) with one study finding a greater than 12% reduced risk of dying, (Hill and Turiano, 2014)
It harbours a much greater emotional and physical health, including increased happiness and enhanced work productivity (Steenbarger, 2019)
Improved physical functioning: those who lacked a sense of purpose were more likely to contract cardiovascular disease than traditional risk factors as smoking, drinking, and lack of exercise.”(Steenbarger, 2019) - one study found a 27% reduced risk of heart attack (Kim et al, 2013) and 22% reduced risk of stroke, (Kim et al, 2012)
Improved cognitive function. A low purpose was found to increase likely hood of Alzhiemers Disease by 2.4 times, (Boyle, et al 2010)
General insights from positive psychology suggest that not all psychological challenges are the result of trauma or emotional disorder. Rather, when we lack purpose, positive emotions such as joy, happiness and fulfilment are absent and we tend to drift to the negative. This can lead to a sensation of being trapped, chaotic and disconnected.
Finding your purpose can be the difference between surviving or thriving, the electric energy that propels our life and the lives of others to fulfilment, freedom and happiness!
So how do you find your Purpose? Simple.....Our Powered By Purpose program takes you step by step through the discovery of your purpose but also how to live more purposefully. Unlike other programs that guide you in this space, Powered By Purpose goes deeper into why you are challenged in your life right now, what drives you to succeed as a person and how to make any changes to your life that stick for the long term. In short we show you not just how to find your purpose, but also to live purposefully. There's a big difference!
So get started, Download our FREE Purpose Pulse Check, then if you have any questions get in touch with us here.
Yours on purpose,
Ben & Josh (The Purpose & Flow team)
